College of Natural Resources News Central

From the NC State University Bulletin - by David Hunt

Changes in the State Health Plan that threaten to penalize some overweight employees starting in 2011 raise the question: What's available at work to help faculty and staff members lose weight and live healthier lives? 

Employees in the College of Natural Resources (CNR) are showing what can be done, on their own, to improve their health and fitness.  The program, called CNR Fit for Life, was launched last May to give employees in the college a free and easy option for exercising during their lunch break.

From the News & Observer - September 24, 2009
by Martha Quillin, staff writer

In stands of tiny trees in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia blooms the hope of restoring a mighty giant, as scientists try to bring back the American chestnut from near extinction.

Five hundred blight-resistant American chestnut saplings are thriving a year after they were planted in three national forests, a milestone in the long-term effort to re-establish the tree in its native habitat. Reviving the chestnut, decimated by a fungus, would reverse one of the worst ecological disasters in the nation's history, reviving a major source of food and lumber that forest animals and humans have missed for more than a century. 

Dr. Kathi Beratan, research assistant professor in the N.C. State University Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, will serve as Policy Advisor and External Partnership Liaison with the BRAC-RTF working on regional planning and sustainable business development with Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base, the surrounding communities, and state and federal agencies.  

From the NC State Bulletin - August 2009

Both the Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report ranked NC State as one of the best values in higher education.  The Princeton Review found that NC State offers its students the sixth-best value of any public university located in the United States or Canada. U.S. News ranked NC State as the third-best value of any public university in the country.

No other North Carolina-based institution – public or private – made the Review’s “Top 10” list. 

From FRESH WATER: Research to protect the Earth's Life Support System

Washing across North Carolina, from tiny streams that trickle down the western mountains to the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers that roll through the eastern half of the state, water has been vital to the state’s growth for centuries. It has served as inland transportation and trade routes, sustained crops and livestock, and powered textile mills, furniture plants, and biotech labs. Because of water’s key role in North Carolina’s agricultural and industrial heritage, NC State has been heavily involved in water-related research for years.

Researchers in the College of Natural Resources has long been a major player in that research. See what they and other NC State researchers are up to these days.

WRAL.com - August 10, 2009

From Biomass Magazine - July 22, 2009

Torrefaction technology development company Agri-Tech Producers LLC has selected South Carolina-based Kusters Zima Corp. as its engineering/manufacturing partner for the production of its torrefaction equipment. Agri-Tech is utilizing a technology developed at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, which the company obtained an exclusive license for in February. 

 [The Autothermic Transportable Torrefaction Machine (ATTM) was developed by NC State forestry doctoral student, Chris Hopkins.]

From WorldGolf.com  July 22, 2009

The Tarheel Junior Golf Tour has announced that the first nationally ranked junior golf event to be held at the newly opened Arnold Palmer designed Lonnie Poole Golf Course at NC State University will be December 12-13, 2009. The golf course is located on the NC State University campus...

From ESPNoutdoors.com -July 12, 2009

NC State University wood products senior Will White and textiles engineering senior Chris Wood win the 2009 National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship in Little Rock, Arkansas.  

From the News and Observer - July 7, 2009

The Raleigh area will have a new course at N.C. State's Centennial Campus, one designed by Arnold Palmer, who is scheduled to return July 31 for its grand opening.

Note: NC State's PGA Professional Golf Management Program has been active in the development of the course, which will also serve as an on-campus learning laboratory for students in the PGA accredited program. Learn more about the PGM Program

NC State Alumni Association  - Red and White for Life Blog Posting 6/12/2009

Interviews with two members of the Board of Trustees - Suzanne Gordon '75 and Robert B. Jordon III '54

NC State University Web Feature - June 2009

Jim Woodward Named Interim Chancellor of NC State University

From the Biomass Journal - June 2009

The drive to develop sustainable nonfood, starch-based ethanol feedstocks and more efficient conversion processes is intensifying as the U.S. attempts to reduce ethanol’s carbon footprint by transitioning from corn to cellulosic ethanol. That has prompted NC State associate professor of forestry and environmental resources Anne Stomp and fellow researchers at North Carolina State University to take a closer look at plants, such as duckweed, that could be a potential feedstock for ethanol production.

The research, funded by the Biofuels Center of North Carolina, was presented at the annual conference of the Institute of Biological Engineering in March in Santa Clara, Calif.

From the The Clayton News-Star - April 22, 2009

If N.C. State researchers are right, pig waste and a pond weed indigenous to North Carolina may hold keys to reducing our dependency on petroleum. Anne Stomp, an associate professor of forestry and environmental resources, is leading a research project at Julian Barham’s 4,000-sow hog farm in the Corinth-Holders area to see if duckweed, nourished with pig waste, can be cultivated on a large scale then dried and used to make ethanol, a fuel that can power automobiles.

From the NC State Technician -  March 26, 2009

According to researchers at N.C. State, wood could be the new coal. Using a process called torrefaction, woodchips are dried out in what equates to an industrial sized toaster oven that changes them both physically and chemically.  While they retain 80 percent of their energy content, they are much lighter and easier to crush – an ideal burnable energy source.
Burning the woodchips is also much greener and more efficient, boasting a zero carbon output.

While torrefaction is nothing new in itself, N.C. State researchers have managed to develop one that is mobile and self powered, in comparison to the bulky, less efficient machines of the past. 

Read the full story at http://www.technicianonline.com/news/new-coal-could-be-boost-to-n-c-needs-1.1631097